Oh no! The storefront that literally has no impact on the playability or access to a game installed on a PC, that can be run by a shortcut is not the specific storefront you are most used to.
Boycott! Burn the witch!

Now the inclusion of Denuvo is another matter. You know something that can and has been proven to adversely affect performance is another matter...

By the sounds, Epic spit 4A a nice big wad of $$ to help expand their studio in return for exclusivity: can't really blame them business wise (although this will hurt sales for sure, on the PC anyways).

After watching a couple vids on Metro Redux 2033+LL, I'm definitely keen to play them prior to Exodus: not sure how I've missed them tbh lol.

A lot of people missed them. They were not big sellers. They are really good though and scary af! Also the production value is of the chain! They are super smexy!

The one thing that's making me think wait a little is the setting, cold cold Russia....and it's SO damn hot at the moment, not sure I could get immersed proper (I'm weird like that...try to align games with the season etc).

My AC cranking could achieve the desired effect...but bone chilling June could be the go too.. lol, **** I'm a nerd

The one thing that's making me think wait a little is the setting, cold cold Russia....and it's SO damn hot at the moment, not sure I could get immersed proper (I'm weird like that...try to align games with the season etc).

My AC cranking could achieve the desired effect...but bone chilling June could be the go too.. lol, **** I'm a nerd

That's going to the extreme for immersion. Nothing wrong with it of course...just extreme.

The one thing that's making me think wait a little is the setting, cold cold Russia....and it's SO damn hot at the moment, not sure I could get immersed proper (I'm weird like that...try to align games with the season etc).

My AC cranking could achieve the desired effect...but bone chilling June could be the go too.. lol, **** I'm a nerd

I'm not really getting why there is SUCH a big backlash against the Exodus Epic store exclusivity....it seems so out of wack, and a non issue to me (I'm a Steam guy through and through if I can help it too).

Well for one competition becomes more about who has a bigger warchest rather than the merit of the platform, and for games with multiplayer it is arbitrarily shrinking the potential player base potentially killing the game on arrival, eg we saw titanfall 2 used as cannon fodder in a battle between publishers that did the game no favours.

Well for one competition becomes more about who has a bigger warchest rather than the merit of the platform, and for games with multiplayer it is arbitrarily shrinking the potential player base potentially killing the game on arrival, eg we saw titanfall 2 used as cannon fodder in a battle between publishers that did the game no favours.

Now you're reaching.
In real world terms how does this adversely affect gamers, the industry, or the developers/publishers?
The ONLY reason the player base would shrink is because people are morons and take sides for arbitrary reasons. You have a PC. You can access any of the stores. There is no barrier to entry here. Sure the Epic store is baren atm, but it will get better and more options and features will be added. They also have the basis for a massive and platform agnostic server for Multiplayer games. Something Valve does not have at this point.

So please give legitimate reasons how any of us are in a worse position because of this?

The one thing people on the anti side never mention is that this is what competition looks like. What Epic is doing will force a response from Valve or they'll lose more games to them. While I would prefer the games to be on more than one store and then the deciding factor for gamers would be what each store offers, this current situation was almost always going to be the first step. For the first time Steam cannot sit back and assume its massive market share is going to keep it a virtual monopoly which again people fail to mention, has essentially been acting as a forced exclusive platform for over a decade. I could also go on about Steamworks implementation, but that seems like something many of the complainers like to ignore.

Its not competition, competition involves choice, exclusives are about removing choice from the customer in an effort to force them to use a platform currently only used by fortnite players, im sure it will still be rubbish in a year so i'll wait.

Platform "agnostic" server for multiplayer games which is assume you mean consoles and certinally not linux which only Valve and GoG make an effort to support. Crossplatform play has nothing to do with the store its always been possible but never done because gamepad users simply were not competitive with mouse and keyboard, they are now trying now to prevent gamepad users and Kb&m users from playing together.